Deer

CHARLEVOIX -- A Charlevoix woman hit a deer and crashed into a ditch. Emergency responders were called to Black Road in Marion Township around 10:30 p.m. on Monday where Nataleigh Rose Musser, 18, struck a deer. Her vehicle left the roadway and hit a ditch, causing her to hit her head on the steering wheel, Charlevoix County Sheriff's officials said. Authorities took Musser to Charlevoix Area Hospital for treatment.

EAST JORDAN -- A seasonal Charlevoix resident hit a deer while on a Sunday morning motorcycle ride. Steven Pitzer, 58, rode his Honda motorcycle down Ellsworth Road in South Arm Township not long after 9 a.m. on Sunday when he collided with a deer. He lost control and skidded across the road, injuring his left side, including a cut on his hand. Charlevoix County Sheriff's officials took Pitzer to Charlevoix Area Hospital for treatment.

A Petoskey man was injured when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a deer last week. Charlevoix County Sheriff's office officials identified the injured man as Dean Medlock Smith, 41, of Petoskey. Smith was transported to Charlevoix Area Hospital where he was treated for a broken leg, authorities said. According to police, the crash happened at about 7:30 p.m. on U.S. 31 near Beatty Road in Norwood Township. Deputies said Smith was traveling north when his motorcycle collided with the deer.

EAST JORDAN -- A seasonal Charlevoix resident was injured when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a deer Sunday. Charlevoix County Sheriff's office officials said Steven Pitzer, 58, was out on a riding his Honda motorcycle on Ellsworth Road in South Arm Township around 9 a.m. when a deer ran in front of him. Police said Pitzer collided with the deer causing him to lose control of the vehicle and skid across Ellsworth Road....

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan wildlife officials are holding informational meetings to discuss recently proposed antler restrictions for deer hunters in northeastern lower Michigan. The proposal calls for a minimum of three antler points on at least one side for a buck to be legal. The deer-management unit includes Presque Isle, Montmorency, Alpena, Oscoda, Alcona and Iosco counties. That's where bovine tuberculosis in the deer herd is most prevalent and the biggest concern.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - Ready, aim - click. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is posting its annual forecast for the deer-hunting season Monday at its website, www.Michigan.gov/dnr . The report gives detailed conditions in each of the state's hunting regions. The DNR typically releases it by the start of the archery season, which began Saturday, but there were some hiccups. DNR spokeswoman Mary Detloff tells the Kalamazoo Gazette that the report is eagerly anticipated by hunters, who know what to expect before they get their gear ready.

GAYLORD - The orange army will start to assemble this weekend, leading up to Tuesday's opener of Michigan's rifle deer season. “Michigan would make some countries jealous with the army we can muster up on Nov. 15,” laughed Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Officer Mark DePew. “It's tradition. It's great.” DePew is not exaggerating. According to DNR figures, an average of 250,000 firearm hunters pursue deer in the Northern Lower Peninsula every year.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) has confirmed a deer in Cheboygan County has tested positive for tuberculosis. A 3-and-a-half-year-old doe shot by U.S. Department Agriculture of Wildlife Services in mid-January at a private livestock farm near the eastern Cheboygan County line near Presque Isle County tested positive for the disease. The department officers were working under a disease control permit, issued by the DNRE to minimize the amount of bovine tuberculosis occurring in the area.

LANSING (AP) - A disease that began killing deer last summer has now wiped out more than 8,000 whitetails in Michigan. Officials believe the number is certain to climb as farmers harvest corn and discover more carcasses. Brian Bouwkamp, who hunts near Muskegon, tells The Detroit News ( http://bit.ly/PIgydX ) he can smell dead deer on his family's 60 acres. The disease is not a threat to humans. It is transmitted by a biting fly and causes internal bleeding, high fever, loss of appetite and weakness. The Department of Natural Resources says summer drought and high temperatures are contributing to the high number of cases.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Officials say an insect-spread deer disease has been found in at least 29 Michigan counties and is to blame for the deaths of more than 10,400 deer in the state. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced new figures Monday on the illness. It's called epizootic hemorrhagic disease. The virus causes extensive internal bleeding and is transmitted by a type of biting fly called a midge. The disease isn't a threat to humans. The DNR says it expects that hunters will find more dead deer.

BOYNE FALLS -- A Petoskey man was injured in a rollover traffic crash involving a deer in Charlevoix County's Hudson Township early today, Thursday. Charlevoix County Sheriff Don Schneider identified the injured man as Michael Luni, 25, of Petoskey. Authorities said Luni complained of back pain and was transported to McLaren Northern Michigan by Boyne Valley Township Ambulance as a precaution. Deputies said the crash happened around 4 a.m. on Thumb Lake Road near Hudson Stone Road.

Thanks to a late start to the 2012 winter and abundant forage throughout the summer of 2013, Northern Michigan's deer population will be higher this hunting season than last, according to a report from the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR, however, expects fewer bucks to be taken in Northern Michigan because of antler point restrictions that will be implemented this season across 12 counties. Those counties include Charlevoix and Emmet. Hunters can now legally take only bucks with three or more points on one side.

Need a refresher on hunting rules and lands? Let us help corral some information for you. The 2013 Michigan Hunting and Trapping Digest, a 60-plus publication by the Michigan DNR, outlines everything a hunter needs to know regarding license types and fees, season dates, bag limits, youth hunting, hunters with disabilities and more. It is available to download at www.michigan.gov/dnr. Weve highlighted a few of the basics for you. Looking for a place to hunt? Public hunting lands information is available online.

LANSING - Changes to Michigan's hunting and fishing license structure are on their way next year and will reduce the number of license types while boosting revenue for habitat, conservation, outreach and enforcement of wildlife laws. Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation Sept. 17 authorizing the changes which will take effect March 1, 2014. Most notably, Public Act 108 reduces the number of hunting and fishing licenses from more than 200 to just 42, and generates an anticipated $18.1 million in additional revenue in its first full year of implementation.

Do you need to add some colorful perennials, which will bloom at this time of year, to your garden? Well, let me share with you a few of my seasonal standouts. If you want to add yellow flowers consider adding Helianthus multiflora, Rudbeckia hirta aka black-eyed Susan, or Ligularia Desdemona. Pinks in full bloom include, Autumn Joy sedum, anemones, obedient plant, native pink asters, coneflower, nodding onion, dahlias and my whimsical Gaura often referred to as whirling butterflies.

HARBOR SPRINGS - A city park with too many deer will start shooting them with birth-control guns. The solution sounds unconventional, but for a city trying to strike a balance between shutting its more than 60-year-old deer park and killing animals en masse each year, darting deer with contraceptives just might work. The city of Harbor Springs on Tuesday became only the second in the country to implement a darted birth control to regulate the population of a enclosed public deer park.

HARBOR SPRINGS -- Shoot the deer with birth control. The solution sounds unconventional, but for a city trying to strike a balance between shutting its more than 60-year-old deer park and killing animals en masse each year, darting deer with contraceptives just might work. The city of Harbor Springs on Tuesday became only the second in the country to implement a darted birth control to regulate the population of a enclosed public deer park. Newton, Mass., started using a similar method in the late 1990s in an effort to phase out a public deer park, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

MUSKEGON COUNTY - The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Michigan State University Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health have confirmed epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) is present in a white-tailed deer in Muskegon County, the first county to have the fatal virus hit this fall. The disease is transmitted by a type of biting midge and is characterized by its sudden onset. Deer can suffer extensive internal bleeding, lose their appetite and fear of humans, grow progressively weaker, salivate excessively and finally become unconscious.

ELLSWORTH - A semi-truck traveling east-bound on Ellsworth Road near Miles Road struck a deer and flung it onto the windshield of a car driven by Brenda Willson, 27, of East Jordan, at 8:38 a.m. on Thursday. Willson and passenger Ruth Eaton, 26, of Boyne City, both suffered minor injuries after the deer crushed Willson's windshield, according to a Charlevoix County Sheriff's Office release. Both were transported to the Charlevoix Area Hospital for treatment. The Charlevoix County Sheriff's Office as well as East Jordan EMS and the East Jordan Fire Department responded to the crash.

LANSING - Thursday is the final day to apply for an antlerless deer license for the 2013 season. Hunters can apply for a license online, at any authorized license agent or at a Department of Natural Resources customer service center. A nonrefundable $4 fee is charged at the time of application. Hunters may only apply for a single public-land or private-land license. About 554,000 antlerless deer licenses are available for the 2013 seasons, down from about 709,000 in 2012. For Otsego County, 300 public-land licenses are available, with 600 set aside for private land.